Rachel pointed out the amusing scene the day after the GOP nominated Cruz in Texas that the Congressional GOP held a House committee hearing about making English the official language. I think this is called shooting yourself in the foot. Nominate a Latino as an outreach and then the next day insult the very same people you want to attract. According to Latino Decisions: Obama 70%, Romney 22%

Nate Silver's newest prediction for the Electoral College...
Obama is now at 70.8% chance of winning (all-time high) —UP 5.8% since July 25 (before London). Romney is now DOWN to 29.2%.

The article is worth reading for a summary of the issues, but doesn't go into solutions because he's a conservative and the solutions are not conservative.

I think my concern now is about what will happen with the radical conservatives who only read sites that tell them Romney is leading. When they wake up on Wednesday morning and find Obama won a second term, what will they do?

I think my concern now is about what will happen with the radical conservatives who only read sites that tell them Romney is leading. When they wake up on Wednesday morning and find Obama won a second term, what will they do?

same thing that has been done in history before -

plan an assassination

plan a diversion in the form of an attack by an alleged foreign enemy such as what was done on 9/11 or the Gulf of Tonken

plan another economic crisis even worse than the prior ones.

plan an arbitrarily spread virus which threatens major populated areas

*oops* edit all that - the plans of course have already been made; the question will be which one or ones will be carried out.

Josh Rogin of Foreign Policy parses the prospects for the Romney foreign policy team. Especially rich is the depiction of Elliott Abrams as a “technocratic official” with government experience, rumored to be a possible NSC head. Bill Kristol, one of the sources for the article, provides his take:

For the record, and on the record, my notional choices would be, as of now: Secretary of State Joe Lieberman, Secretary of Defense David Petraeus (Congress would have to waive the seven-year rule), National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, Deputy National Security Adviser Robert Kagan, Ambassador to the United Nations Ryan Crocker, and Director of the CIA Gary Schmitt.

I guess no one can say we aren’t being warned.

If that is in any way an accurate description of a potential Mitt regime then please dear baby Jesus let Obama win. As much as I'd like to see the present system fall over, an Abrams/Kagan/Schmitt etc gov would be a disaster for humanity. How many wars would they start?

2. This is an admission of fear from the Romney campaign. You don’t make a risky pick like Paul Ryan if you think the fundamentals favor your candidate. You make a risky pick like Paul Ryan if you think the fundamentals don’t favor your candidate. And, right now, the numbers don’t look good for Romney: Obama leads in the Real Clear Politics average of polls by more than four percentage points — his largest lead since April.

3. Related point:
Two of the top contenders in the Romney campaign’s veepstakes were Ohio’s Rob Portman and Florida’s Marco Rubio. Given that there’s fairly good evidence that vice presidential candidates are worth at least a point or two in their home states, the Romney campaign’s decision to pick Ryan is evidence that they feel they need to change the national dynamic, not just pick off a battleground state.

In a talk to an Israeli group in July, 2010, Adelson said he wished he had served in the Israeli Army rather the U.S. military–and that he hoped his young son will come back to Israel and “be a sniper for the IDF,” a reference to the Israel Defense Forces. (YouTube video of speech)

“I am not Israeli. The uniform that I wore in the military, unfortunately, was not an Israeli uniform. It was an American uniform, although my wife was in the IDF and one of my daughters was in the IDF … our two little boys, one of whom will be bar mitzvahed tomorrow, hopefully he’ll come back– his hobby is shooting – and he’ll come back and be a sniper for the IDF,” Adelson said at the event.

“All we care about is being good Zionists, being good citizens of Israel, because even though I am not Israeli born, Israel is in my heart,” he said toward the end of his talk.

This guy is giving 100m in an American election. Do you people really believe you live in either a republic or a democracy? Or is denial just more emotionally comfortable?

Mostly live in denial!! But we enjoy the comedy. What paradise do you live in Titus, some place where selfless philosopher statesman slave only to better the lot of their fellow countrymen?

It is best that we're all honest with ourselves. Isn't it? I live in the United States. So you're with George Carlin? We've got a ticket to the freak show and might as well enjoy the program? I'm sympathetic.

RMoney just sounds too hip-hoppy and vaguely complimentary. Of course, I guess you could call him "The Dirty Glove", which would be ironic considering "Dirty Glove" is the name of a Michigan Hip-Hop label and Romney's dad was governor of Michigan.

Well, Rmoney chose his running mate and it looks like a humiliating choice on his part. I'm not at all sure that Romney made yet another gaffe when he introduced Ryan as 'the next president of the US'. It may have been a Freudian slip of epic proportions. Epic. At least Grover Norquist got his wish. Romney has enough working digits to sign the bills Congress sends him, while he keeps the seat warm for the next guy.

This is very clearly a ticket for the 1%. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out, but I'm thinking not well. But I could be wrong.

The decision seems to have been made to surrender to the ultra-right right after the Prime Minister of the UK and the mayor of London publically mocked Romney. I know the election is not about foreign policy—but it ain't totally nothing either; the average person just assumes the US president will be the international leader and adequate is good enough; Romney was seen to be not just inadequate, but a disaster. Should Romney be elected, it is clear US influence will be significantly reduced on the international stage, only propped up to the extent it will be is by how many countries we bomb/invade. All muscle, no brain.

Romney had to change the focus from his own glaring failures as a candidate to something...anything, else. So the focus now is going to be the Ryan Budget and cutting social programs while increasing defense spending—clearly signalled by announcing Ryan's candidacy in front of a warship.